Questions about border commission

The security of the U.S.-Mexico border, and the fate of the estimated 11 million people illegally living north of it in the U.S., may end up in the hands of that most Washington of institutions: a commission.

The recently announced outline of a bipartisan immigration reform plan from the Senate’s Gang of Eight calls for a commission made up of border-state governors, state attorneys general and “community leaders” to evaluate border security.

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The commission is seen as crucial by both Republicans and Democrats because illegal immigrants could only start on the pathway to citizenship envisioned by the Gang of Eight once the border is deemed secure, and the panel is expected to have an important — although still largely undefined — role in making that determination.

”Border security is what the conservatives are really going to be focused on, and the commission is the cost of the pathway to citizenship,” said Rebecca Tallent, a former chief of staff for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who now chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center’s immigration project. “How do you thread that needle? How do you make the border commission a viable, realistic sign-off that the Republicans can support? But how do you make it so that a person who might oppose comprehensive immigration reform doesn’t have veto power?”

But some of the same factors that have hamstrung panels charged with solving the nation’s fiscal challenges (see: the Supercommittee, Simpson-Bowles) could plague a border commission, too, critics warn. Republicans and Democrats both assume the other side is playing politics and have fundamental disagreements over how secure the border is right now, as well as who should serve on such a commission and just how much power it would have.

The Gang of Eight’s bare-bones plan includes just two sentences describing the commission, and the group has been tight-lipped about further details.

“We recognize that Americans living along the Southwest border are key to recognizing and understanding when the border is truly secure,” the bipartisan framework says. “Our legislation will create a commission comprised of governors, attorneys general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border to monitor the progress of securing our border and to make a recommendation regarding when the bill’s security measures outlined in the legislation are completed.”

For a body with such potential power, what is so far known about the commission is greatly outweighed by what isn’t. But what’s clear is that Republicans and Democrats working on immigration reform have very different ideas about the most important aspects of how the commission would function. It is expected that the Gang of Eight will flesh out its vision for the commission and other aspects of reform when it unveils more specifics about the immigration plan in the near future.

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Under the plan, state attorneys general and governors from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California would serve on the commission.